“Only one bowler has ever knocked the bat out of the hands of Don Bradman, cricket's greatest batter: Eddie Gilbert. Only 15 bowlers have ever dismissed Bradman without a run to his name. Eddie Gilbert was one of them. Yet, whilst Bradman played test cricket for Australia for two decades, …show more content…
As an Aboriginal man living in Queensland in 1931, Eddie Gilbert was bound by the restrictions of the Protection of Aboriginals Act 1987. This meant that he needed written permission to travel from his Aboriginal settlement each time he played in a first-class match. Gilbert received horrendous amounts of hate and was commonly ‘heckled’ during games. One Queensland player refused to ever speak to Gilbert, one batter deliberately tried to run him out in his first game and some refused to share train sleeping compartments, taxis, hotel rooms or dining tables with him. His fame and success on the cricket ground opened doors that were closed for other Aborigines. In Adelaide, when Gilbert was late to a movie he was seeing with his teammates, he was denied entry by the usher until the manager confirmed his identity and Gilbert was